Coercion

Noted media pundit and author of Playing the Future Douglas Rushkoff gives a devastating critique of the influence techniques behind our culture of rampant consumerism. With a skilled analysis of how experts in the fields of marketing, advertising, retail atmospherics, and hand-selling attempt to take away our ability to make rational decisions, Rushkoff delivers a bracing account of media ecology today, consumerism in America, and why we buy what we buy, helping us recognize when we're being treated like consumers instead of human beings.Introduction: They Say
Chapter One: Hand-to-Hand
Chapter Two: Atmospherics
Chapter Three: Spectacle
Chapter Four: Public Relations
Chapter Five: Advertising
Chapter Six: Pyramids
Chapter Seven: Virtual Marketing
Postscript: Buyer's Remorse

Bibliography
Notes
Index

Douglas Ruskoff's previous books--including Cyberia and Media Virus--have been translated into thirteen languages. He is the Technology and Culture Consultant to the United Nations Commission on World Culture and a regular consultant to Fortune 500 companies, and he writes a bi-weekly column for the New York Times syndicate. He teaches at the Esalen Institute and Banff Center for the Arts, and will be adjunct professor of Media Sociology at New York University in 1999. He lives in New York City.